A CHANGE to the law when Brian Cowen was Minister for Finance in 2007 enabled Fianna Fáil TD Frank Fahey to improve his pension entitlements by €24,000 a year.
Mr Fahey considered it unfair the scheme he was involved in meant he was required to have served three years as a minister to qualify for a ministerial pension when the general requirement had been reduced to two years.
In April 2007, then minister for finance Mr Cowen wrote to Mr Fahey saying: “I am pleased to advise you that I have decided to include a provision concerning this issue in the Markets and Financial Instruments and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2007 that I will be publishing in the immediate future.”
Mr Fahey had written to then minister for finance Charlie McCreevy in 2001 asking to be included in a new pension scheme.
Mr Fahey, who was then minister for the marine, referred to the Ministerial Parliamentary and Judicial Offices and Oireachtas Members Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2001 in a letter to Mr McCreevy in October 2001.
“On making enquiries with your department, I find that I appear to be the only person who will not benefit from the provisions in the Bill namely that the minimum service for entitlement to an office holder pension will be two years rather than the present three,” he said.
“It was my understanding that if I attain two years’ ministerial service by the end of next January, then I would qualify like all other office holders and the previous office holders for a ministerial pension rather than a pension based on my minister for state’s salary.
“I would be grateful if you would investigate if there is any way in which I can be included on a parity basis with all other office holders.”
Responding to Mr Fahey in December 2001, Mr McCreevy said he accepted the reduction from three to two years for entitlement to ministerial pension would create “an anomaly” for Mr Fahey if he left office having spent less than three years as a minister. However, he said a change would require an amendment to legislation and he could not guarantee an opportunity to do this would arise in the next few months.
A note prepared for Mr Cowen in March 2007 explained the difference in Mr Fahey’s gross pension would be more than €24,000 a year and that he had opted to remain in an old scheme when a new one was introduced in 1993. “The particular circumstances of this case are clearly outside what was envisaged when the qualifying period for an office holder pension was reduced, ” the note said.
A spokesman for Mr Fahey said he contacted the Department of Finance in 2001 after becoming aware of the issue. He said the Department indicated this situation would be amended at a suitable future opportunity.
However, Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan said yesterday: “Frank Fahey has claimed publicly Brian Cowen is one of his best friends. This is clearly Brian Cowen using national legislation for the benefit of one of his colleagues. I would not have thought that’s the way national legislation should be used,” he said.
